Neeraj nominated for ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award

Neeraj Chopra, champion javelin thrower, who won an Olympic gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was nominated for the prestigious Laureus ‘World Breakthrough of the Year’ award by a panel of more than 1,300 sports journalists and broadcasters across the globe.
The 24-year-old from Panipat in Haryana is one of the six nominees shortlisted for the award in this category, including US Open champion Emma Raducanu, World No. 2 Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev, FC Barcelona prodigy Pedri, triple jumper Yulimar Rojas and swimmer Ariarne Titmus. Neeraj is only the third Indian athlete to be nominated for a Laureus award after wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who won the ‘best sporting moment in the last 20 years’ award in 2020.
Commenting on his nomination, Neeraj said: “I’m delighted to be nominated for this award. It is a great honour for me to be recognised in the wider sporting world for what I achieved in Tokyo. ” World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe shared his views on Neeraj’s nomination. “I have always since becoming the president of World Athletics done my level best to be entirely neutral when I’m watching competitions, and that’s always a challenge. I obviously and instinctively always want British athletes to do well. But I also recognise that I have to be aware that I represent, as president of the sport, well over 200 nations. I have to concede that my impartiality that night was really tested to its limit because my grandfather was Indian. My mother was born in Delhi and brought up in India, so I have obviously very strong emotional ties still to that country,” he said.